<p>4 easy miles on my Precor, finished in 35 min. H begged not to waste good wine, and I made pork loin roast in the oven instead. The wine will be served tomorrow to spruce up the leftovers. :)</p>
<p>As I was trolling Zappos for shoes last evening, I came across an interesting knee sleeve by a German company CEP. It has a gel pad around the knee and the co claimed that it stays put no matter what (my biggest pet peeve with knee sleeves is that they slip and slide off!). Naturally, I orderd one. I do not know now Zappos does it, but the package appeared on my porch today! I paid $0 for shipping. This knee sleeve is a keeper!</p>
<p>I noticed that the same company makes special compression socks for running. Can someone please educate me about the benefits of compression socks?</p>
Lost 0.4 lbs this week. A little disappointed considering how HARD I have been exercising and with such high intensity. But, then I thought about it and I did have some (a lot of ) Ritz Crackers, Cheese, animal crackers…and a few other things that I indulged in too heavily.) I was just so hungry. Also lost 3.8 last week so maybe my body was in a little shock.
I will keep going. Eat as clean as I can this week and my goal is to have at least 3 servings veggies/day.
Starting weight: 177.8
Current weight: 166.0
-11.8 lbs since about December 1st.
I can tell I am losing weight. Size 14 jeans are falling off of me even after coming out of the dryer and size 12 fits very nicely. My size large scrub pants are going to be replaced with mediums soon. (if they weren’t drawstring they would be falling down too.) Notice a big different in my stomach and I have collarbones again. My complexion is amazingly improved. It was like I was poisoning myself before. Now I am healing.
<p>My knee sleeves have a gel ring around the knee cap. I had a look around and I see that some have really large gel pieces above and below the kneecap.</p>
<p>I am not really a fan of using knee sleeves for running (I generally needed them for tennis) as they get hot and sweaty and they will lose their elasticity from all of the back and forth in running. They do work well for recovery after a run too. I used to use the old Neoprene type and they really smelled after a few weeks of use.</p>
<p>4.2 pounds in two weeks is fantastic. Notwithstanding the bar set by The Biggest Loser, if you can lose a steady 1 to 2 pounds a week, that is fantastic. I never was able to consistently average 2 pounds a week. Unless you are just morbidly obese (like 300 pounds), it’s going to be impossible for a woman to lose weight faster than that. There’s just enough room for a calorie deficit that large and still stay above your basic energy needs to stay healthy. Slow and steady wins this prize!</p>
<p>Thanks to arabrab for the impetus to finally get a simple kitchen scale. I don’t know why I didn’t do it a year ago. It makes tracking at LiveStrong so much easier. For the most part, it has confirmed that I was doing pretty well at tracking, but it makes some of my little indulgences more precise. For example, my "handfuls’ of peanuts or pistachios had slowly grown over time and I was underestimating those. I was also underestimating apples, which are now a piece of cake to weigh after they are cut up ready to eat.</p>
<p>And, the biggie is that I finally have a way of getting an accurate tally on half n’ half in my coffee. To be accurate before, I would have had to measure it by the tablespoon. I just didn’t do it. Now, I put the cup of coffee on the scale, hit the tare button, and eyeball the cream as I pour it in. I get a read out in fluid ounces. It is what it is. No fudge.</p>
<p>I had probably been overestimating a bit using raw weights for meat. In any case, it’s great to have the option of weighing cooked meat. In this database, you can look up calories for either raw or cooked meat of any cut. That lets you pick out an item in the LiveStrong database that’s actually accurate for raw or cooked weight. Basically raw meat is 40 calories per ounce. Cooked is 60 to 70 calories per ounce.</p>
<p>Anyway, the scale has tightened things up and given me a little nudge to track accurately for a while. The thermometer jeans are still the ultimate tracking device!</p>
<p>mspearl: good for you! My D who eats pretty low-carb and LOTS of veggies, always has veggies for breakfast. And I thought I was a healthy eater but I was amazed at her ingenuity! She knows there is a tendancy to weight-gain & diabetes on one side of the family, and she is being proactive.</p>
<p>There is no reason you can’t have a spinach or zucchini omelet, or carrots & hummus for breakfast. Bingo, another serving of veggies in, and they replace sugary or carb-laden items you would have formerly had. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the consistent inspiration from all you amazing posters! I have been slowly slowly wittling away at my weight and am now just barely in the normal BMI category. Still too close to overweight for comfort! I have not really gone for any strict eating plan - mostly a combination of some tracking, being conscious of carbs, plenty of vegetables, and exercise. I’m more of a moderate exerciser by nature but I have added weights thanks to this thread. Anyway, I was in the book store and skimmed the book Wheat Belly. It really hit home for me and I decided it’s worth a try cutting out wheat completely for a month to see if I notice any changes. I am hoping this helps my weight loss efforts and also has a positive effect on some gastro intestinal IBS like symptoms I have been having. Anyway, as this thread seems to me to be a laboratory of sorts, I thought it might be useful for me to write about this experiment. It certainly will help me to keep going with the health and fitness effort if I commit to posting every few days!</p>
<p>mspearl- good job! I think that is fine progress!</p>
<p>Bunsen- I use compression sleeves. I prefer Zensah in the pretty colors. My doc son in law teases me and says they do nothing, but my daughter insists that, at a minimum, it is like giving your calves a nice hug. We love them. They feel SO good after running (and even during). I’ve been known to wear them to work under trousers. They are popular with the running crowd. They stay in place and feel good. The socks also work, but with the sleeves you can wear whatever socks you like. I have some cute compression socks that are purple with a white heart at the top that I have on in the women’s half picture that you’ve (BB) seen. A lot of guys like the sleeves- they are unisex- and guys frequently have tight calves.</p>
<p>It was so cold this morning (with the dusting of snow, too) that I decided to do a short run at lunch today. Well, I did the unthinkable and forgot my Garmin. I now know how true junkies must react. I was pawing through my gym back, called H to check the dresser top at home (it was there)… Decided I couldn’t run after all, but realized I have a GarminFit app on the iPhone. I really don’t relish running with the iPhone, and could actually figure out 3 miles pretty accurately, but I think I’ll try the phone app. (on Twitter this would be # tagged as “firstworldproblems”)</p>
<p>Getting to the “normal” range on the dreaded BMI scale is a major accomplisment, ever since they changed it in 1998 to make 25 million more Americans instantly overweight! I’m “overweight” on the BMI scale today. I’m only barely “normal” when I’m at the bottom of my three or four pound window. It is a horrible measure on an individual basis.</p>
<p>Keep us posted on your wheat thing. Reducing wheat is so much a part of reducing carbs, that it’s hard to separate the two.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that you like the long-sleeve tech shirts and have quite a collection.</p>
<p>I have four long-sleeve tech shirts and don’t use them that much. When I do use them, it’s for layering. I do use the Capilene 3 as an outer layer for the office. I wear a tech t-shirt (have switched from dress shirts with the new Nike wardrobe) underneath it and it looks and feels nice.</p>
<p>I generally use hooded sweatshirts for outdoors stuff. I like the hand-warmer pockets as I can stick my hands in there and carry keys and phone. The major downside is that they weigh more, are more effort to clean and work poorly in the rain. The reason that I’m using them is that there were a bunch around the house and I’m into reusing clothes.</p>
<p>I didn’t get around to buying that textured sleeveless Adidas yesterday or today - the ice and snow out there are keeping me inside. I will look for one or two more when we go grocery shopping on Sunday.</p>
<p>I have moved the Adidas tech shirts (L) that I bought this past summer for tennis and office to my lower priority drawer. The high-priority shirt drawer now just has the Nike Tees and my sleeveless Adidas techs (3 XL, 1 L, 1 M). I still need to use the stuff that’s one or two sizes bigger until I can pick up a few more items.</p>
<p>The next big project will be shorts - I don’t see them in Marshalls soon so I might just buy a bunch (7 or 8) Champions if I can find a deal online.</p>
<p>There are more accurate calculators out there. These calculators typically just need one or more additional measurements which you can get with a tape measure.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about weight in regards to tennis. The top four tennis players in the world are 176, 188, 187, 185 pounds respectively. The rest of the top ten are 160, 200, 200, 180, 183, 185. Outside of #5, David Ferrar, the rest run from 176 to 200. It’s pretty clear that muscle and mass are pretty important in the top ranks of professional tennis today and that going lighter can have disadvantages.</p>
<p>I used to get a lot of power from excess weight on the serve, forehand and backhand. Now I have to use more muscle to generate pace. There’s a balance in there somewhere. The lighter player has less joint stress and may be faster depending on muscle configuration. 20 years ago, the top players were 155-170. The game was less about power and more about placement, speed, and finesse.</p>
<p>MOfWC, thanks! I really liked your purple socks, they complemented your running ensemble so perfectly. When there is a controversy about whether something works or not, the only reliable way to find out is to try it, so I will give the socks a shot. I think I need a pair of hot pink ones (for some reason, I’m attracted to pink socks at the moment). One indicator that compression socks should work for me is that I like the way running tights feel on my calves. Can’t always wear tights, so socks might be a good alternative. </p>
<p>If I were going for a run and could not find my Garmin, I’d be in total panic. On the way to my race I was constantly checking to see if I had it with me in the car! H says I’m a Garmin junkie, LOL.</p>
I used to wear cotton t’s, turtles, and mock-turtles as my winter baselayer under sweaters and fleeces, but I didn’t have any of those in MEDIUM either! I got a few of those, but the long-sleeve tech ts cover more bases. They are fantastic under a quarter-zip fleece and super easy to wash with no ironing, etc.
Plus, I like them for working out or walk/jogging when it’s cool. Because I’ve got walking intervals, I’m cold in a short sleeve shirt below 60 degrees outside. Inside this time of year, it just feels cold in a short sleeve shirt, even though it’s not that cold. So I wear the long-sleeves for working out and push the sleeves up if I get hot. Otherwise, I’m freezing before and after the workout.
Actually, I have a couple of adidas long-sleeve quarter-zip fitness tops. I wear that over a long sleeve tech t. I take the top layer off after my warmup and then put it back on when I’m done. That’s also a pretty good around the house combo in the spring and fall.
The shirts I really like are the two NIKE tech mock turtle golf shirts I found at Marshalls last fall. Those are really nice shirts. Heavier material than a workout shirt. They fit great and wash beautifully. I also got a couple of heavy Columbia cotton mock turtlenecks (cheap deals at Sierra trading post) that’ll be perfect for the deep freeze tomorrow! Brrr.
<p>This week I started doing a nutritional cleanse–meeting with a local nutritionist who works with a group of five for a period of three weeks (two of my friends were doing it and they persuaded me to try). It’s basically eating lots of fruits and vegetables and some protein (fish, eggs, yogurt). No ban on fat–except butter. Also–no grain, sugar, alcohol, dairy, (other than plain yogurt) or caffeine. Nuts are fine too. So far, (5 days) I’ve not had difficulties. I do miss coffee–I have one cup a day at a local coffee shop.</p>
<p>The woman who leads the group spent some time talking about the research in a book called The China Study. I haven’t looked at it yet–the original study is 800+ pages and this is a shorter version of the results. Bottom line seems to be that a plant-based diet is the way to go. Not sure I want to be a vegetarian or a vegan–I’m not a huge meat eater, but I definitely wouldn’t give up fish. I probably have fish 4 or 5 nights a week.</p>
<p>Slowly getting back to workouts–4 times this week. Planned a long walk today, but we got snow yesterday and today it’s raining. Will go to the gym and do intervals on the elliptical machines. Did the same yoga class again this week–it was a little easier. There are some of those moves that seem absolutely impossible to me. I don’t think I could ever do this one. I’m not that flexible.</p>
<p>The China Study is pretty much pure grade A baloney. The author has been a vegan for 20 years and is on the board of the most visible vegan advocacy group in the country, the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine.</p>
<p>That’s fine and there’s nothing wrong with him pitching a vegan diet, but it’s not “research”.</p>
Bromfield, I’m not a fan of “cleanses” in general, but what you are eating now seems like a reasonable, common sense diet. I would add back coffee, a couple of glasses of red wine and some cheese and call it a winner. If your diet allows tea, hot chocolate or chocolate, I would argue that your nutritionist is being irrational in his decision to disallow coffee.
Veganism is not natural for omnivore species such as Homo Sapiens. I agree with idad on his assessment of the “study”. I also think that some people who eat and/or smoke too much grass go nuts.
<p>Well, we made the pot roast in the dutch oven using idad’s recipe and followed the instruction on using a barolo. The cheapest I could find was $29. I splurged (DH’s bday) and oh, was it ever good. Made roasted cauliflower, blanched/braised spinach, and mashed potatoes along with. Ate too much but neither of us woke up any fatter today.</p>
<p>I have not been exercising. At all. I’ve been very bad.</p>
<p>One cautionary note for cleansing: caffeine is physically addictive and cold-turkey cessation of caffeine will often result in pretty unpleasant withdrawal symptoms including headaches. Nothing wrong with that. If you want to quit caffeine, cold turkey is probably the way I would do it (and just suffer for a couple of weeks). But, if you don’t plan to quit caffeine, I wouldn’t subject myself to cold-turkey withdrawal for no reason just for kicks and giggles!</p>
When there is a controversy about whether something works or not, the only reliable way to find out is to try it, so I will give the socks a shot. I think I need a pair of hot pink ones (for some reason, I’m attracted to pink socks at the moment). One indicator that compression socks should work for me is that I like the way running tights feel on my calves. Can’t always wear tights, so socks might be a good alternative. </p>